Valve handle



Oct. 8, 192'9. H. w. A. LEHNERT 1,730,579

l VALVE HANDLE Filed April 9. 1927 K El. l, muto@ Patented Oct. 8, 1929 UNITED STATES HENRY W. A. LEHNET, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

VALVE HANDLE Application led April 9,.

This invention relates to plumbing.

The subject of the invention is a new and improved mounting and adjusting appliance for a faucet handle, particularly of the type 5 carrying visibly in service the word Hot7 or Cold or a similar legend.

In plumbing appliances of a heretofore favored type, the faucet handle has had to be mounted in place on the valve stem, in

10 the usual operatinglocation, and secured on the stem in that location, in order to set the valve to fully or tightly closed condition; and then the handle has had to be released from its securement and properly reset on the stem if, as has usually been the case, the described setting ofthe valve toclosed condition has resulted in throwing the legend out of its intended alignment, 'usually horizontal. Also, later resettings of the handle on the stem have been from time to time required, to restore the legend on the handle to its proper alignment, as the valve member or valve seat or washer or some other working part became worn.

In this type of plumbing appliance of the prior art, the socket of the handle usually carries circumferentially spaced longitudinal ribs, and then the end of the valve-stem to be received in such socket carries similar ribs; the ribs in the socket being shaped to lit wit-hin the spaces between the ribs on the stem, and vice versa, so that the handle may be loosely slipped on and olf the stein, and y n when placed on the latter is positively keyed thereon. The handle-socket, also, isusually provided with a radial, threaded passage for v mounting a set-screw, this screw to be tightened to bite into the stern to lock the handle and stem rigidly together. The tightening and loosening of this screw is awkward and troublesome.

An object of the invention is to provide an appliance of simple, sturdy, dependable and inexpensive construction, and at the same time vone wherein the screw mentioned is eliminated, not only to make a more sightly arrangement, but also to theend of securing a resettable handle which may be quickly and easily reset.

Various other objects'and advantages of 1,927. Serial N'o. 182,197.

the invention than those hereinabove mentioned will be specifically pointed out or will be apparent hereinafter-in the course of the below detailed description ofthe form of the invention shown, in the accompanying drawing, as a preferred one of the various possible embodiments of the invention; it being understood,- naturally, that such form is merely illustrative of one of the many possible combinations and larrangements of parts well calculated to attain the objects of the in vention, and hence said detailed description of such form vis not to be taken as aty all defining or limiting the invention itself. rlhat is to say, the scope of protection contemplated is of course to betaken from the appended claims, interpreted as broadly as is consistent with the prior art. Y

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. l shows said form, in side elevation,

part of the handle-socket being broken away and in section; F ig. 2 is also a side elevation, partially broken away and partially in section, showing on an enlarged scale the handle-carrying end of the valve stem and the parts carried thereby; Y, v y

F ig. 3 is an end elevation of `Fig. 2, showing the face of the cruciforin type of handle illustrated in the drawing; and

Fig. 4l is a transverse section, taken on line %t of Fig-2. 1 Y

Referring to the details of the form ofthe invention illustrated, Vthe part 5 represents a familiar element which may be present to finish oil' the appliance at the line @where the water-supply pipe enters the basin or the like (not showng served by the faucet.

Within this pipe and controlling a suitable valve therein in a manner well under c.

rt-ood in the art, is a rotatable valve-stein 8.

Asis familiar also in the art, this stem'at its outer end is provided with Va key-carrying portion 9, for feathering thereon, that is, for having easily slippedon and off the same, the socket portion of the faucet handle. Such a handle is indicated at 10; the socket thereof being marked 11. In the present case, said stem portionl 9 eXteriorly carries, and ksaid socket 1l interiorly carries, the ribs -herein- CJI above referred to, as clearly shown in Figs, 2 and 4.

In the form of the invention,illustrated, however, there is mounted on the stem 8, in back of the portion 9 thereof, a rotatable collar or thimble 12. This collar is interiorly threaded as indicated at 11i, and handle-socket 11 has ezteriorly thereon a thread matching the thread in the collar.

To facilitate finger tightening` or loosening ef the collar 12, circumferential linurlings are preferably provided as indicated at A15.

Screiving up the collar 12 on the `handlesoclret 11 Will jam or Wedge lock the collar on the socket. In order at the same time similarly to lock the collar, and hence the handlesocket, on the stem, there are provided Wedge elements for lcoacting ineident to screwing up the Collar on the socket, to lool; together the eollar, the stem, and the socket. These Wedge elements are shown as annular or ring elements.V @ne of such element-.S is here an inwardly directed annular flange 16 on the collar, and another is the annular facerat the rear or free end ofthe ,soclget 11. In the present ease, this flange 16 is not arranged to abut directly againstthe rear annular face et the Seeks@ 1l, but only indirectly; Sima in the non.Z preferred `construction illustrated, there is mounted on, the at a. length thereof rear of the Stem portion 9, a lesser collar 1T, to be yvedgedly interposed between the annular flange 16 of the collar 12 and the rear annular face of the socket l1 1 when the collar 12 is screwed upon the socket. Further, as. a feature of the ,Construction 110W Pre ferred, and in order to insure always that the various elements 1G, 11i and 11 will finally properly Wedge together, on tightening up the collar 12, the lesser collar 17 is threadedly mounted on its appointed length-f the Stem 8, as indicated at. 18, and these threads are of the opposite hand to the threads by which the Collar 12 is screwed up on the handlesooket 11. l

Thus, it will be clear that to reset the handie on the stem S, at any time, itis merely necessary to unscreiv the cellar 12 from the handle-socket 11, then slip the handle off the stein, and then, after properly angularly adjusting the handle relative to the stem, slip. the handle back on the stein, and again screw up the collar 12 on the handle-socket. In first installing the appliance, that is, to mount the collar 12and the lesser Collar 1 7 on the stein, the collar 12 is first` slipped onto, the main Cylindrical Stem. portion, and the lessor Golf lar 17 is nent mounted on the threaded portion 18 ofthe stem.

Inasmuch as many changes Gould be made in the above constriiotion, and many apparently Widely` different embodiments of the shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the language contained in the following claims is intended to cover all the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention Which, asa matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

I claim;

1. A Ifaucet-handle mounting comprising a Valve stem having near its Outer end a screwthread and entending therebeyond a splined end-portion of less diameter than the thread, a collar on the screw-thread, a handle having a hub With a splined socket receiving said stem-end-portion, and a flanged thimble about the collar, having its iiange engaging the collar and also having screw-thread engageinent with the handlehub, and retain.- ing the hub-end against the collar.

2. A faucet-handle mounting comprising a valve stein having near its outer end a screwthread and extending therebeyond a splined end-portion of less diameter than the thread, a collar on the screw-thread, a handle having a hub With a splined socket receiving said stein-end-portion, and a, flanged thimble about the collar, having its flange engaging the collar and also having screw-.thread en.; gagement with the handle hub, and retaining the hub-end against the collar, the screwthreads of the stem and the bushing having opposite pitch-leads. l

In testimony whereof I atlix my signature.

HENRY W, A, LEHNERT. 

